"Unknown" White man is hanged in Pretoria

For the first time in the South African criminal history a man was hanged with his name known only by authorities. The 37-year-old White male was accused of criminally assaulting his six-year-old daughter in 1959. He was sentenced in the Queenstown Circuit Court on 11 February 1960. His name was kept a secret by Justice P. O’Hagan as he feared that revealing the man’s name would create problems in the child’s future.

Other convicts who were scheduled to be hanged on the same day were: Mzempi Johannes Mkize who was convicted for the rape of a White woman, three Africans who were given death sentences for the murder of Mr. Emile Ugo Fanton on 25 September 1959 and two Coloureds who were convicted in connection with the murder of Mr. Frederick William Taylor in Cape Town. The following year, 1961, 17 non-Whites were hanged in Pretoria Central Prison.

References

The Star,(19, September 1960),’ “Unknown” man to die tomorrow’ [Available at the National Library of South Africa, Cape Town Campus] [Accessed 29 July 2011]